Fixed

The hospital ward came to life at 6.00 am (!) and the orthopedic surgeon was on his rounds by 7.00. He confirmed that the break to the radius was serious. The x-rays showed that last night's realignment had worked well, but there was a definite risk that repair would not be stable without the insertion of pins t hold things together. Ward activity continued all around, I was prepped for surgery (though I cannot understand why a total body wash was necessary for a wrist operation), and was first down to theatre at 12.15 or so. The support staff at theatre reception couldn't have been nicer, the anesthetist joked about being a cyclist himself and joked about not always respecting one-way systems, the surgeon detailed what was entailed, I was fed some knockout stuff -- and the next I knew it was 1.30, I was out of theatre and awake, the job was done, and a new, neater wrist restraint was in place.

I thought I'd be allowed food and drink immediately, but the nurses were having none of it, insisting that I'd have to wait four hours before I could have anything, and then only yet more tea and toast. Carl had come in while I was down in theatre, and had been told not to come back until 7.00 pm, but I phoned him to issue a summons and in he dutifully came. I lost track of the number of times my blood pressure and temperature were checked, and the extent to which I pleaded with the nursing staff and reassured them that I was fine to go home without staying in another night. They eventually gave in and let me out at 8.00 pm. We tried on vain to find a late-night pharmacy which would fill the hospital prescription for painkillers and anti-inflammatories, so just went back to Carl's place for a bite to eat, after which we spoiled ourselves by watching two fine films on his home entertainment system -- (Queen (Helen Mirren: Wow!) and Pedro Almodóvar's Bad Education (wonderful).

Sleep followed at 1.30 am or so.